Nathalie Just1, Matthieu Auffret1, Guillaume Poirier2, Maribel Cordero2, Carmen Sandi2, Rolf Gruetter1, 3
1LIFMET, CIBM/EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland; 2Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute and EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland; 3Department of Radiology, Universities of Lausanne and Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland
There is increasing evidence that a link exists between exposure to stress in early life and long-term alterations to brain function, which in turn have been linked to psychiatric and neurological disorders in humans. In the present work, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to examine the metabolic effects of peripubertal stress on the offsprings of control rats and male rats themselves submitted to peripubertal stress. The lateral septum was chosen as the area of interest due to its role in stress mechanisms. GABA concentrations were significantly reduced in the peripubertally stressed offsprings. These findings correlated with immunochemistry measurements.